Marching to the Beat of My Heart
by the electric phantom
Summary: AU STORY: Lisa Heffenbacher moved, and now she's just waiting for her life to begin when she goes to St. John the Dwarf Academy. But things don't go as planned when a charismatic Keith Watson convinces her to join the marching band and she meets the ever-so-charming Hector Ruiz. What will happen once she signs up? Only time will tell.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N.: Hey, all. Sorry I haven't updated in months (though I'm not the only one). I've pretty busy. With what? The topic of this new story: marching band! This story is pretty severely AU, but I'm still trying to keep true to the essence of the characters, even if the details are different. Anyways, enjoy!**

Lisa Heffenbacher woke up, exhausted. Her brain told her to be happy, but she couldn't remember why. Then, she realized it: It was her birthday! She was now fourteen! She got up out of bed, putting her headphones on. Instantly, she was overwhelmed by Barbra Streisand's belting of "Don't Rain on My Parade."

There was a knock on her door and her mother, a tall redhead woman with a kind smile, and her father, a shorter man whose military training showed in his physique, walked in.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart!" her mother said, pulling her into a hug.

"Thanks, Mom!" she said cheerfully.

"I know this move has been hard on you," she said, playing with her daughter's blonde hair. Lisa nodded.

The Heffenbacher family had moved from Philadelphia to Cleveland just after Christmas. It was now March, and Lisa was still adjusting to the new environment. And more importantly, no soft pretzels.

"Well, we know you have to get ready," her father said, "But we want you to read your card before you do. There's a surprise in there that we think might brighten your day up a bit."

"Yay! Okay, let's go!" She skipped out of the room, hit the doorway, stumbled, tried again, and made it successfully into the dining room.

There were three boxes: a small, rectangular one that looked like a chocolate bar (which it probably was); a box about the size of a hardback book (possibly the John Green novel she wanted); and a large package the size of a dozen donuts box. There was a pink envelope with the name Lisa written on it in fancy penmanship. She eagerly picked it up and opened it.

The card showed a puppy with a cupcake in between its paws and read "Happy Birthday!" on the front. The inside read: _Dear Lisa, You're fourteen already, our little girl isn't so little anymore! We hope you have a wonderful birthday and enjoy our little treat. Love, Mommy and Dadoo_. The card also contained three tickets.

"St. John the Dwarf Academy presents _Guys and Dolls_? I thought they sold out!"

St. John the Dwarf Academy was a college-prep school about twenty minutes away from the Heffenbacher's house. It was the place Lisa would be going next year, and she had desperately wanted a taste of their arts department. The spring musical just so happened to be _Guys and Dolls_, Lisa's favorite musical and second favorite movie.

"We got tickets the first day sales opened," her mother said proudly, "So, we'll be able to see what their drama club is like."

"I'm so excited!" Lisa squealed, "I wonder what I should wear."

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It was five-thirty, and they were there ridiculously early. The performance started at six. Not even the most obsessive mothers had claimed their seats yet, but the Heffenbachers were. They had seats in row E, which gave a great view of the stage as well as the pit. In fact, Lisa was about ten feet away from the short brunette girl on drums, who always smiled when she saw the younger girl's awestruck expression. Lisa watched the boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen instructing the rest of the pit, telling them things like "blend" and "tune your flute, it's sounds gross."

_He's a bit pretentious, _she thought, _the Percy Weasley of this school, I bet._

Finally, the director took the stage. She thanked everyone for coming to support the arts, thanked the donors who'd gotten them this awesome new theater, asked everyone to turn off their phones, thanked a bunch of people for their help, and wished everyone an enjoyable experience.

_Finally, _Lisa thought_, let the fun begin. _

The first few scenes were... okay. The people in the chorus looked like they were having fun, the sets were nice, and most of the leads were actually okay so far. Only Nathan Detroit seemed lacking. It was far from the worst thing she'd witnessed, but hardly the best. Then, an actor entered from stage left. His poise, his smile, his eyes; she felt herself drawn to him. He probably liked to wear bow ties. Most likely a fan of Gene Kelly. Lisa hurriedly looked down at her program. His name was Hector Ruiz.

###############linebreak########################## 

She watched the rest of the play avidly, rarely looking away from Hector Ruiz. His job as Sky Masterson was utter perfection. His voice made her heart melt into an ooey, gooey pile of music. At one point in "Luck be a Lady," he looked directly at her, and smiled an even bigger smile than normal.

She was in love. In love with a boy she had never met. How old could he be? A sophomore, probably. They just don't give out leading roles to freshmen, after all.

As they were walking out of the building, she noticed some of the actors were hanging out in the hallways. She saw him chatting to the pretty girl who'd played Sarah.

_Figures, _she thought_, They're probably a couple in real life too. _

She was about to walk out the door when she felt a tap on the shoulder.

"Hey," she turned around. It was him. His voice sounded higher than before. Maybe he was losing his voice from so much use.

"Is this your phone? I thought I saw you drop it." She looked down and saw her five dollar flip phone in his soft hands.

"Yeah," she said, blushing, "Thanks. That would've sucked to leave her, cuz I probably won't be here again until the summer."

"Oh, are you coming here next year?" he asked. She nodded.

"Cool. Well, I can't wait to see you in some plays!" he said before turning back to his friend.

"So, Meghan, I told Francine that..."

She left the building to find her parents waiting about fifty feet away from the door.

"What happened?" her mother asked, "You were right behind us, and then-"

"I dropped my phone," Lisa interrupted, "And the guy who played Sky picked it up, and we talked for a minute."

"He did a good job," her father stated. He wasn't into theater at all, but had learned enough from his daughter to know a good actor from a bad one.

"There's a Dairy Queen about five minutes away. Do you want ice cream?" her mother asked.

"Definitely!" she said with a laugh.

The drive over was spent talking about the play. They all agreed that the choreography (or dance stuff, to Mr. Heffenbacher) was phenomenal and that it was unfortunate that the girl who played Sarah got hurt when she fell into a table. As she ate her cone, Lisa desperately tried to cling to every last memory of his performance. She never wanted to forget those magical two hours she spent under his spell.

**A.N.: Haha, Lisa has no idea how much of her life she'll be under his spell. Well, that's the prologue. I hope that's enough of a tease to keep you guys interested. As always, reviews are like pistachios: it's always better to have more!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N.: Hey, you guys! LOL sorry, couldn't help myself there. So, I'm back with a second chapter. **

**Stardust, yay! I'm so happy that there's another band geek TEC fan out there. I play the same instrument Lisa will be playing (you'll see later what that is). I'm so glad you like the style! The relationship between Hector and Lisa is a lot like the one between me and my drum major, except Hector and Lisa are made for each other. Haha, that one quote in particular especially. **

Lisa smiled at the nun who had helped her sign up for her classes.

"There are some of the fall extracurriculars over on the right, if you're interested in any of those things," the nun suggested.

Lisa nodded. She didn't really want to get involved just yet, but figured it wouldn't hurt to check it out, at least to be polite.

"Okay. Thank you again," she said, shaking the woman's hand before getting up.

Her mother squeezed her shoulder.

"Now that wasn't so horrible, was it?" she asked.

_I cried in the middle of the school gymnasium, _Lisa thought, _it doesn't get much more horrible than that._

She walked past the sports teams; she was such a klutz that she knew there was no hope for her in high school athletics. She was about to just walk out the door when she heard a voice.

"Would you be interested in joining the marching band?"

She turned around to see three kids standing in front of a well-decorated, incredibly sparkly poster board.

The first was a well-built African American boy. He had kind eyes and seemed very friendly. On his left was a short Hispanic girl with curly black hair. She was holding a trumpet and smiling at her. On the boy's right was ruggishly good looking guy with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes who looked rather bored.

"I don't play any band instruments," she mumbled, "Just piano."

"Well, piano's a good place to start," the girl said, "If you understand the basics of music, we can pretty much teach you any instrument."

"How could she learn before the football season began?" Mrs. Heffenbacher asked.

"We have band camp over the summer," the blonde boy said.

"Yeah, we spend two weeks learning marches and music and getting to hang out," the black boy said, "It's a lot of fun."

"That does sound like fun," Lisa agreed, "Do you guys do stuff other than football games?"

"You bet!" the girl said, "We do parades, concerts, and trips too."

"Yeah, the entire band is going to Disney next week," the black boy said, "We'll be leading the parade."

"Do you do that every year?" she asked.

"Every other," the blonde boy said, "Every year would be too expensive."

"It sounds like a lot of fun," Lisa commented.

"It is," they all said.

"Do you wanna see the band room?" the black boy asked.

"That sounds great," Mrs. Heffenbacher said.

And just like that, he'd charmed them straight into the band room.

Take everything you'd expect from a band room: calm, orderly, people all playing together. Then turn it upside down of its head. That was what this band room was like. Two trombonists seemed to be in a contest of which one could hold their note longer without passing out. Two girls on snare drums were echoing each other's playing. Lisa recognized the conductor from the play.

"That's my dad," the boy said, "Our band director."

_Oh, that's awkward. I thought he was sixteen. In that case, he's pretty cool for a teacher._

"Dad!" he yelled across the room, "We've got a freshman interested in joining band."

The guy who had been playing trombone put it down.

"Finally! What, that makes two so far?"

Lisa struggled not to gasp. It was him. Hector Ruiz was in the marching band. He smiled.

The band director came over.

"Hi, I''m Mr. Watson," he said.

"I'm Lisa," she said. Her reflexes had her hand already out for him to shake.

"We're not big on formalities here. You don't have to do that," then he directed himself to his son, "Keith, why don't you go back downstairs? Tell Jessica that she can take a break at eleven."

Keith, as the boy was apparently called, nodded and left.

Mr. Watson turned back to Lisa.

"So, you're interested in band?" he said. She nodded.

"Great! What do you play?"

"I only play piano," she said.

"That's no problem. We can teach you something. In fact..." he paused for a moment.

"Annie,can you bring your bells over here?" From in the back with the drums, a girl picked up a harness and brought over her silver instrument, apparently known as bells.

"It's a lot like a piano," Annie said, "The top row are the black keys, and the bottom are the white ones." Lisa nodded.

"Okay. What should I play?" Annie put the bells down onto their stand and moved a music stand.

"Try the fight song," Mr. Watson said, "Just sight-read it and see what happens."

Lisa nodded. Annie handed her a pair of mallets. Lisa tentatively hit what looked like b flat.

"That's right," Annie encouraged, "Keep going."

Lisa sight-read the entire piece. Some of the rhythm was a bit off, and the tempo definitely needed to be fixed, but she got all the notes decently well.

"Alright!" Mr. Watson said, "I guess that officially makes you our newest bells player!"

Lisa smiled at him. It wasn't her shy, quiet smile she usually gave teachers. Instead, it was the full-fledged sunny grin that hadn't appeared since the move. Her mother turned to Annie.

"Weren't you in the pit for the play?"she asked. Annie nodded.

"Yeah, I played drums. Did you go see it?" Lisa nodded.

"It was fabulous," she said, "I loved it." Annie laughed.

"A lot of people in here put blood, sweat, and tears into that production," she said.

"Annie!" a guy yelled from across the room, "Cole got his hand stuck in a tuba! A little help, please?"

Annie rolled her eyes.

"Who let him near a tuba? You know who his brother is!"

Annie ran over to the rather bizarre struggle.

"I'm going to get some air," Mrs. Heffenbacher said, "Do you want to stay in here?"

_No, I'd rather go out to the car. Of course I want to stay here!_

"I'll stay here for a little while," Lisa said. Her mother left the room, most likely going to go get a snack.

Lisa looked around in amazement. Everything that was going on, it should have been chaotic to her. Yet it wasn't. It all felt perfect. It was like she had always been meant to be there. For the first time since they'd moved, she felt at home.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" She turned around to see him, Hector Ruiz. He was even more handsome than when she last saw him. His voice was still high though.

_Maybe that's just his natural voice, _she thought, _Either way, he's gorgeous. _

"It's fantastic!" she gasped, brushing the hair out of her eyes. She felt the blush creeping onto her cheeks.

He nodded.

"Yeah, um, I'm Hector," he said. She laughed.

"I remember. I saw the production of _Guys and Dolls _last month."

"Oh, really?" he asked.

"Yeah, my parents got tickets for my birthday."

"Which performance did you go to?"

"The one on March 13th. It actually _was _my birthday, so it was kind of perfect." He laughed.

"That is a bit too perfect. Are you planning on doing any productions?"

"Definitely! That is, if I can get in. I grew up on musicals. The oldies are my life."

"Really?" he asked, "Almost no one likes those these days! Everyone I know is all like _Wicked! Spiderman! Book of Mormon! _And I'm like _Singin' in the Rain! Funny Girl!1776!_"

She laughed.

"I know, right! Like, one time I mentioned _Hello, Dolly _and someone thought I was talking about Hello Kitty."

Hector stuck his tongue out. Lisa laughed.

"Ugh, that's so stupid! Barbra Streisand is a goddess!"

"Agreed." Her phone vibrated.

"You should get that," he said, "Could be important."

Blushing, she took her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open.

**Hav 2 go now, sweetie! Luv u! 3 mom**

"I have to go now," she said, "Mom's orders."

"Ah, that sucks," he said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

"Yeah," she agreed, "I guess I'll see you around... Hector," she said. His name, it felt so good on her tongue. He grinned.

"Yeah, I'll see you, um-" he paused, not knowing her name.

"I'm Lisa," she said.

"Alright then," he said, "I will see you, Lisa, at band camp."

**A.N.: I'm so excited to write about band camp! That won't be for a bit though, most likely, since I'm attempting NaNoWriMo with my creative writing club. Anyways, you're more likely to get another update before November 1st if you review!**


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